A Message to Mr. Trump

                                                              

Dear Sir:

We live in a country where we are allowed to protest. This is a great thing and it should never be discouraged or looked down upon. We the people protested against the Crown of England to gain our independence and we won. We protested against the Vietnam War that sent our brave young men and women to fight and, lose their lives for the benefit of old rich men, and we won. We protested against slavery, and we won. We protested for a woman’s right to vote, and we won. We protested against child laborers in unsafe factory conditions; we protested against unfair conditions for American workers; we protested for a decent living wage and a sensible work week, and we won those too. We, as a nation, were built on the ashes of revolution. Protesting is in our blood.

We are America and because we are the land of the free, we should encourage people to speak out. We will speak out and, our government officials should fear us. The constitution was set up to ensure that people and not corporations or churches had the last word. America is great and it was always great. I am standing with all the people who are not happy with your whiney and hateful messages. You are not my president. You do not represent me or my daughter and granddaughters. I will not acknowledge you as my leader of this great country until you speak out for the weakest of us: the poor, the children, the homeless, and the elderly.

You do not exist in my world and you have no power over my life. I will not acknowledge your existence until you publically apologize to every woman in this country for your sexist behavior. No woman should ever be called a pussy! This hateful name and your actions is an affront to every grandmother, mother, daughter, any sister living in this country and, it demeans the men who love them. Shame on you! Did you foolishly assume that your words would not have consequence or that you could just chalk it off to locker room babble? Your words and anything that you say from this day forward are captured for eternity on film. I will not forget and neither will future generations.

You are not my president until you stand with the Native Americans against the Dakota pipeline, or stand against the Koch Empire and Big Oil and especially the foreign banks that have the audacity to invest in destroying our drinking water…America’s drinking water! You are not my president, Mr. Trump until you dismantle Citizens United. You are not my president until you admit publically to being a bigot and change your hateful ways. In my America, all people are equal and everyone has a voice no matter what their sex, race or religion is. Shame on you, Mr. Trump!

You are not my president! You do not represent me until you immediately guarantee affordable healthcare to every American citizen. How dare you and the people in Congress enjoy the best and most expensive health benefits while we TAX Payers are left to die because you buckle under the pressure of greedy insurance companies and the pharmaceutical gangsters? Why should I worry about scraping money together from my measly social security check (that I’ve paid into for over 50 years) to pay for my medication when my tax money goes to the very people in congress who continuously get free healthcare while simultaneously trying to take away the people’s safety nets?

I am not a pussy and, you are not my president until you earn my respect. You need to apologize to me right now!

Marie Gilbert, An American Citizen and your boss come this January.

When is a Saint Not Saintly

                                                       

                                                 

Brought up in the Catholic religion, we were introduced to sainthood pretty early. Our birth names had to be based on one of the Church’s long list of saints, which meant you couldn’t name your bouncing baby boy, Snoop Dog.

When my siblings and I were growing up, the nuns who taught us in school always used the lives of the Saints to point out how incompetent and wicked we were as students. Sure why not shove that inferiority complex down a child’s throat early in life, right?

                                                                

I mean really, who could compete with a Saint Francis of Assisi or St. Christopher, or Saint Maria Goretti? Why were they so good? Were they some type of holy superhero? I guess the nuns were trying to give us role models to look up to, but how exactly did one become a Saint? What are the rules? And why was St. Christopher kicked off the Saint List? What could he have possibly done?

It appears that there are five steps to becoming a saint and you can check them out here: http://www.focus.org/blog/posts/how-does-someone-become-a-saint.html

Recently, I was in a discussion with a good friend from Facebook about the recent canonization of Junipero Serra as the evangelizer of the western United States. Many people were happy with the news when Pope Francis announced it last week. Many more were not.

                                                             

 

I have a soft spot in my soul for the original people of this land. Native Americans were brutalized by the Europeans coming over to this new land. Europeans treated Native Americans as less than human. So why do the Indians hate this new saint? Serra, the Franciscan Friar, arrived in the American Territories in 1749 and founded the Mission of San Diego in 1769. It was the first of nine missions that changed the lives of the native people and not in a good way.

Indian historians blame Serra for the suppression of their culture and the deaths of many of their people at the missions. Indians were treated as children who were forced to accept a religion by force. That’s like the Taliban coming over here and forcing their radical religion on us, or us forcing Christianity on them. It’s not right to force your beliefs on another person...end of discussion.

The Indians were forced to deny their languages, clothing and even marriage customs. Members of a tribe who were baptized were separated from those who weren’t. Horrible!

Okay, I’m going on a rant right now about Saints in general. The church already has enough bad press to handle as it is with the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the corruption of the Vatican Bank, and the sexual abuse of young children. What they don’t need to do is irritate the Tribal Nations by forcing a Saint (who to them is considered a monster) down their throats. 

                                                       

I like Pope Francis, but he missed two opportunities to right a wrong while here in this country. He should have made a new rule that women would be allowed to act as deacons, just like they did while Jesus was alive and, he could have apologized to the Tribal Nations for any wrongs that the Roman Catholic Missionaries caused their people. He then could have picked a candidate that was considered worthy by Native Americans standards.

Pope Francis should have looked at all the facts on Serra before appointing him for sainthood. He should have listened to what the Native Americans had to say about the man. He did not. Bad move.

While we’re at it, I think Pope Francis should re-instate Saint Christopher into the Saint Log Book. Want to know why Saint Christopher was kicked out. He wasn’t kicked off the team because he was unpopular. The man was a star. It was because the church didn’t know enough about Christopher’s origins. Then there was that pesky problem of too many feast days. Not enough days in the week to squeeze all those saints on a calendar.

                                                              

 

To cut down on the overload, Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council decided to remove or demote a few saints. The congregation, having already invested in all those car medallions, decided to keep him as the unofficial guardian of travelers. Check it out here: http://people.opposingviews.com/st-christopher-thrown-out-catholic-church-6156.html

Saints have to be like super heroes, but without the dark skeletons in the closets. If Rome is going to pick a person for sainthood, then they have to find someone who caused no harm to anyone; intentional or otherwise. If Rome is going to pick a person for sainthood, it should consider people from other faiths, too. The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t own the mold that makes a person a saint. Saints can be found in every race, gender, nationality and, they have to be respected by all.

Who do you think is worthy of sainthood?

Smudging and Why We Do It

                                                        

                                                              

The first time I heard about smudging was when I worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. I was the manager of the Changing Exhibit Hall at the time and we were featuring the Lewis and Clark: Across the Divide traveling exhibit in our exhibit hall. This exhibit told the story from the point of the Native tribes that Lewis and Clark met and, many times, depended on when they were commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to go on this tour of discovery.

Out of all the exhibits that I took part in as manager of the exhibit, The Lewis and Clark Exhibit was my favorite.  While I was working in this special exhibit many representatives from the Plains Tribes visited and I learned so very much from them.

Smudging is a powerful cleansing technique of the Native American people, but the burning of herbs for emotional and spiritual cleansing was also practiced among many religions. It’s funny that it took me so long to connect that the Catholic priests using burning incense to cleanse the church during special holidays, was no different than what we do with smudging. While the church uses Frankincense and myrrh to chase away demons, the most common herbs used for smudging are Sage and sweetgrass.

Intentions

Everything has an energy field around it, including us. When we pick up negative energy that can cause us to become ill in spirit, mind and body, smudging helps to displace this unwanted negativity and restore our aura to a pristine boundary around us. Smudging can be used to cleanse people, places, and objects.
                                                        

Set your intentions before you begin to smudge. Smudging is an ancient sacred ceremony which should be done with the proper mindset and protection. Smudging is using the power of the sacred plants to restore balance. You must believe in the ceremony and its results. Sage drives away negative energies while sweetgrass attracts positive energy.

Smudging

Using a clay pot, shell or flat rock, light the dry herbs with a match and allow it to burn for a few moments. Using a large feather (I use a hawk’s feather and a large seashell) fan the flames out. It is the smoke that we will use.
                                                               

You might want to open windows to allow the negativity to depart. While you smudge, you walk around each room in a clockwise fashion, fanning the smoke into all the corners While do the smudging of the room, you should be praying for our Creator to keep you safe as you send the negativity towards the heavens where they will be consumed and turned into positive energy.
                                                             

When smudging a person, you want to follow the course of the Chakra. We are attempting to draw universal light into the body. Locate the point of origin of a person’s aura field. Each person is different. You need to feel their energy field. Fan the burning herbs towards each chakra, back and front of the body and from head to toe.
                                                             

Benefits

When we remember that all life is connected throughout the Universe, when we remember that we are part of nature; not above it, when we realize that there are negative entities; human and demonic, when we remember to hold tightly to the LIGHT, then and only then will we become enlightened and cleansed. I’ve included a site that sells Native American Smudging Supplies: http://www.horsekeeping.com/smudging/smudge-kits/smudge-kits.htm

and the site for the Lewis and Clark Exploration: Across the Divide: http://www.mohistory.org/node/223
 

The Daughter of Dawn

                                                        

I love learning about the history of film, especially lost or forgotten gems. Director Christopher Eilenstine of The Soulless had shared this article on Facebook and if you read it, you'll see how amazing this discovery is. Thank you, Chris for sharing this with us.

                                                              

This silent film, The Daughter of Dawn, featured and all-Indian-cast. Some of the scenes feature authentic Native American dances and ceremonies. It was filmed in 1920 by Norbert Myles and casts the beautiful people of the Kiowa and Comanche Nations.

                                                               

 
Here is the site for the article:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/08/28/discovery-long-lost-silent-film-all-indian-cast-has-historians-reeling-131494


Here is a sample of the film, The Daughter of Dawn.


                                               More from the film:

 

A Tribute to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe

                                                           

I am continuing something I started last week with a story I had seen on Facebook about a very brave man, Eugene Bullard. This week, I am doing a tribute to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe. This tribe was responsible in helping the Lewis and Clark on one of their stops during the Expedition. Here is a quote from Chief Joseph about this:

“The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark. They brought many things which our people had never seen. They talked straight and our people gave them a great feast as proof that their hearts were friendly. They made presents to our chiefs and our people made presents to them. We had a great many horses of which we gave them what they needed, and they gave us guns and tobacco in return. All the Nez Perce made friends with Lewis and Clark and agreed to let them pass through their country and never to make war on white men. This promise the Nez Perce have never broken.”  

                                                                    

Chief Joseph (1840-1904) was a leader of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce Tribe, who became famous in 1877 for leading his people on an epic flight across the Rocky Mountains. He was born in 1840 and he was called Joseph by Reverend Henry H. Spalding (1803-1874), who had established a mission amongst the Nez Perce in 1836. Young Joseph and his father soon returned to their traditional ways in their Wallowa homeland in Oregon. When Joseph grew up and assumed the chieftanship, he was under increasing governmental pressure to abandon his Wallowa land and join the rest of the Nez Perce on their reservation near Lapwai, Idaho. Joseph refused, saying that he had promised his father he would never leave. In 1877, these disputes erupted into violence and Joseph's band, along with other Nez Perce bands, fled across the Bitterroot Mountains into Montana, with federal troops in pursuit. Joseph was by no means the military leader of the group, yet his standing in the tribe made him the camp chief and the group's political leader. It was Joseph who finally surrendered the decimated band to federal troops near the Canadian border in Montana. Joseph and the tribe were taken to a reservation in Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma, where they remained until 1885 when they were sent to the Colville Reservation in North Central Washington. Joseph made several visits to Washington, D.C., to plead for a return to the Wallowa country, but his pleas were in vain. Joseph died in 1904 in Nespelem, Washington, of what his doctor called "a broken heart." His tomb remains in Nespelem today.

                                                                      

The rest of the story can be read here: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8975

                                                                       

Conclusion

When you do a great wrong; your soul does not rest and neither does the land you steal. We came to this land, immigrants and refugees from other lands and we forcibly took what rightfully belonged to the original people. I picked this story because of what is happening to other immigrants and refugees that seek shelter in America. How dare we refuse sanctuary in a land that we took from the Native Tribes? Sure there needs to be a safe and productive way to introduce new arrivals into the fold, and yes, they should pay taxes just like us, even though the corporations and filthy rich seem to find all kinds of way to not pay their fair share...big sigh!! If we are closing our borders to immigrants, then maybe the sign on the Statue of Liberty, should read, “It’s a big lie.”

                                                                            

I’ll end this debate with one of many quotes from Chief Joseph which you can find here: http://www.fold3.com/page/1250_chief_joseph_of_the_nez_perce/stories/#3675/

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian...we can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel... free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself."  

Amen to that

Episode Fifty-nine of Lilith's Escape

                                                                           

“The king of England and his people have fought the Illuminati tooth and nail. You might not recognize London because of the bombings, but the king has kept his people free.” Scouter’s revelation lifted the weight that was hanging over Edward ever since he arrived in this time and place.

                                                                      

“First good news I’ve had since arriving here. Is England the only place to survive?”

“Israel, Germany, the northern part of France, the Swiss, parts of Canada, and here in our country, several Native American tribes who have formed a resistance group at the Bitterroot Mountains,” Scouter replied.

“We’re ready, move it guys,” Rita, interrupted their conversation as she entered the area.

“Will you be okay?” Edward asked Rita.

“We’ll soon find out,” she bravely replied, but her expression told him otherwise.

                                                                   

After Edward, Scouter and Rita joined the others, Tzaddik gave the signal and the trek to a new location begun. Fear hung heavy in the air, and even the children were unusually silent. The plan was to move underground, using the subway system until they would eventually come above ground. The destination was a museum which was located in the southern part of Philadelphia, in a park known as the ‘Lakes’.